Car repairs & Pool Cleaning

27th June 2014

Well winter has arrived here in Qld - I know I know it's nothing compared to the cold like back in home in Christchurch, however believe me we do remember the cold there in fact we have a house sit lined up for Victoria next year - yep in WINTARR as the ozzies say, we will experience a real winter down there - but more on that later. We have not done alot really of late, still going to Caloundra on Thursdays for our line dance class, & and we have improved greatly that we now stay on for the next class where they do more experienced dances & and the steps are a bit tricky at times - great friendships made there & and they are great fun to be with. The Mazda has been running rough since our trip last year where we had it into Mazda twice at Swan Hill to fix the problem - and yep it came back the same so Brian took it back to Swan Hill Mazda & as we had to move on we decided to just leave it. Nothing wrong other than running like a tractor from cold start. Again the car was taken this time to Ford at Caboolture Monday just gone, we decided to try and get things sorted while we have Margaret's (home-owner) little Mazda 2 to use while our Trib is being fixed, got the phone call yesterday to say it's ready to go and appears it was a manifold allowing cold air to get in something to do with the cold idle - Brian told the guy if it was still playing up he would be bringing it back, collected the Trib today & she sounds like a completely different vehicle, 2 new rear tyres next week, and  the aircon & window fix & she will be all good again.

Brian developed his usual winter chest infection a couple of weeks ago, now well on the mend however he was out of sorts for a while - hence the winter sheets went onto the bed, we have our own linen, blankets,doona inner &; cover as back up, however as all the linen here is spotless all we are using are our own pillows and winter sheets - they sure do make a difference.

Brian has been trying to do a bit of fishing off the pontoon - has not really caught anything big enough to keep so they have all been going straight back in. I have been pottering in the garden, keep things tidy and ; ship shape, its great to get out and do a bit of trimming etc - will look good by the time the home-owners arrive back - they started their cruise from Holland to Budapest yesterday - lucky buggers.

This arvo while it was nice & warm Brian decided it was time to take the cover off the pool & scoop a couple of leaves out of it, with the cover on it keeps it pretty clean - the pool temp is 22c bit too chilly for us to swim now.

We have seen Terry & Patricia quiet a bit down at the van park at Worrim they are fine have a great sunny spot - we pop down to have a chat & a cuppa, will be catching up with them more in August when we move to the van park for 12 days before our next house sit. Well folks take care & catch you next time.

Jamie's 8th Birthday

Sunday 17th June

Today we had Vicky her partner Adrian, Olivia 13yr & Jamie master 8 come down for the day. It was Jamie's 8th birthday during the week & as the kids had school we decided it would be best to come at the weekend. They came for lunch which Vicky left behind at home in the fridge hehehe, they went off & bought themselves subway while Brian & I had some quiche that I had made. The guys & kids spent most of the afternoon fishing off the pontoon, catching a total of 2 Pike eels yucky bloody looking things big white things with vicious teeth, 2 Bream great eating but they went back in, & two beautiful Mud Crabs both female so they had to go back in, (not allowed to take the females). Around 3.00pm we had afternoon tea, I had made a banana cake & put candles on it for Jamie, you should have seen his face it was a hit that's for sure. The family left around 4.00pm to head back up to the Sunshine Coast via the mongrel Bruce H Way. We had a great afternoon the weather was good nice & sunny. One rule granddad made the kids adhere to was they were not allowed on the pontoon without wearing life jackets - Jamie tried it on & turned on a real paddy, soon realising everyone else was having fun down there & decided if he wanted to join in he had to put the life jacket on - this time with no hassles, Grandad 1 - Jamie - 0.

  Above fish is a Bream nice eating but we didnt keep it - dont why actually as it was the biggest
  one caught. Below is the Mud Crab - which went back in.

Below photos show the ugly Pike Eel which definately went back in.

Time to Fish

 June  12th 2014

Well when you have time on your hands and the weather is still nice once the day warms up - well else to do but wait for the fish to bite.

The Prom cont

We went for a drive to have a look at the Marina - Brian was dreaming but dreams are free

And a couple of photos of a Sunset over the canal, the top one was a real weird sky

Our First House Sit

26 May 2014

"The Promontory" 26May to 15 August 2014

We met the homeowners in the PM for all the do's &dont's nothing like that, just the general exchanges of ph numbers, email addresses etc, it was agreed that we come back around 7.30pm to take them to the airport as they were flying out later that night. We had to use their wagon a much larger vehicle than ours & Chris drove & did really well. We duely arrived & got them to the airport bade farewells and we  then headed back to the Sunshine Coast making our usual stop off at Nudgee for a dinner/drink stop.

Arrived back at Bribie around 2200 & heading back to the van park to turn the fridge off so it defrosted for the next day. Taking all the food out of the fridge we headed back to “The Promontory” (Prom) for short to start our first night in the house. It is beautiful 4bdrms, 2 bathrooms, 3 loos, huge lounge/living/

kitchen and amazing outdoor areas with views over the canal - oh and a pool also a poontoon with 2 boats. The following day we took poppy to the storage area where Terry has his van parked up when back in NZ, we needed it close by as we will be going back to the van park for 12days once the homeowners come home, which means we will have some time with Terry & Patricia before they head back to NZ & we head to our next house sit in the Hinterland of the Gold Coast where we will be for almost 3wks, but will leave that for another entry.

Below maps shows where we currently are (The Promontory - we back onto the canal)

Bribie Island here we come

25 May 2014

We arrived a the caravan park at Worrim and stayed one night, the park is great,very quiet and currently no rugrats (kids). Tomorrow we move to the house sit on "The Promontory" more on that

in the next post.
Photo below shows where the caravan park is at Woorim where we stay along with Terry & Patricia, you will notice I have circled it (the little red caravan symbol) a great spot.

Packing at Sunseeker

24 May 2014

We depart Sunseeker Village tomorrow after being camped here for the last 5mths. We had always intended in moving down to Worrim Bribie Island on the 26^th to be there when Terry & and Patricia arrived over for their winter migration. However after chatting with our good friends Jan & and Trevor Appleton while they were staying at Sunseeker, they said why don't you give housesitting a go? Jan & and Trev left & and that gave Brian & and I something to think about. It would allow us still to be able to do some travel with or without the caravan, depending on wether we could stay in the homeowners home or wether we had to use our caravan. We signed up to the housesitters site and have had fantastic response.

The photos below show us taking down the tarp that we had over the van and annexe during the summer not only did it keep the heat out it also kept the rain away - we never got wet at all so it worked great.

A Visit to Gladstone

17 May 2014

We made a quick visit up to see Caroline & Alesha up in Gladstone early in May. The weather was great and the view from Caroline's place is stunning. We stayed in the "Love Shack" out the back, all very comfy and just great. We had a nice weekend and all went out for breakfast on the Sunday morning to a nice little cafe down on the waterfront, we couldnt book and thought it would be really busy but no it was lovely. We left to drive back to the Sunshine Coast on the Monday & it took almost all day there are so many roadworks it is just crazy, and speaking of which it seems many drivers get their licenses out of Weetbix packets now days - such crazy idiotic,scary driving we saw. We arrived back at Caloundra around 4.00pm after a great weekend.

The below photos are the view from Carols place - up on the hill, it is an old Queenslander style home with the big wide covered verandahs all around - which the dog tear around like its a race track.

Sunsets over Sunseeker Village

14 May 2014

We sure did get amazing sunsets at the village.